Call for proposals in evolutionary medicine

Proposals to support research on evolutionary perspectives on human, animal, and plant health are now being accepted by the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine (TriCEM).

TriCEM is inviting proposals in the following areas: Seed Grants, Graduate Fellowships, and Working Groups. Proposed activities should focus on evolutionary medicine, broadly interpreted to involve research that uses evolutionary and ecological perspectives to understand and treat disease in humans, domesticated animals, and wildlife. Examples include, but are not limited to: evolution of infectious or zoonotic disease; psychiatric and neurodegenerative disease; evolution of antimicrobial resistance; evolutionary perspectives in global health; evolution of aging; autoimmune disease and allergy; origins and ecological drivers of disease emergence; evolution and cancer; evolutionary perspectives of emerging plant diseases; One Health and comparative medicine; and the genetic basis of disease.

Seed Grants provide funding to initiate new research among interdisciplinary groups of faculty. Funds can be used for lab expenses, staff, field research, and other direct research expenses that would position the teams for external funding or publications (up to $20,000). PIs must be faculty from Duke, NC State, NC Central, or UNC Chapel Hill. Proposals should have a clear interdisciplinary focus and involve multiple PIs or participants from different schools at a single university and/or multiple universities, potentially including at least one PI from a school focused on human or animal health (i.e., medical, dentistry, nursing, veterinary, or public health).

Graduate Fellowships are one-semester fellowships for graduate students to pursue research in evolutionary medicine. To be eligible, a student must be currently enrolled at Duke, NC State, NC Central, or UNC Chapel Hill and have completed one year of their graduate program by the time the fellowship commences. We expect the graduate student to lead and author aspects of the proposed research, and to use their fellowship in fall semester of 2017.

Working Groups involve small groups of scientists (~8-12 participants) collaborating intensively on synthesis papers, analyzing existing data, or working toward new grant submissions. Groups may include in the budget travel costs for external collaborators and speakers, and funds to facilitate both research progress and engagement with Triangle-based academic communities. We expect that most working groups will foster new collaborations, and most will involve the analysis or synthesis of existing data, theoretical models, or both. Participants should include a mix of senior and emerging researchers, including graduate students and postdocs. The PIs and majority of the participants should be from Duke, NC State, NC Central, or UNC Chapel Hill, with plans to meet at least monthly over the course of the year.

Proposals are due on February 1, 2017. Proposals should follow the guidelines on tricem.org.
For more information, please contact Melissa Manus (melissa.manus@duke.edu), Assistant Director of TriCEM.

TriCEM is supported by Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University, and the AKC Canine Health Foundation. We are excited to partner with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and with other centers in the Triangle, such as the Duke Tropical Conservation Initiative, NC One Health Collaborative and other One Health oriented groups, and the Comparative Medicine Institute.